Fortress of Death
by Aqua111
Summary: Zombies have run over New Mexico. Now the mercs aren't fighting for victory anymore - they are fighting for their lives. Warning for possible Sniper/Scout slash later on.
1. 01 Out of the pit, into the thunder

**Fortress of Death**

_Chapter 01 - Out of the pit, into the thunder_

Comment: This story originated from the idea to do a songfic challenge - put your player on shuffle, listen to 10 songs and then write fics for each song (another one of my stories, Exile Vilify, would also have been part of it). But then there were several songs in a row that all would have fitted to different scenes (or maybe even chapters) from the same story. So I gave up on the songfic challenge (at least for now) and started writing this instead.

I don't even like zombies... Yet I'm always drawn back to them, first in my fics with the Guardians and now they have also taken over TF2.

The title of that chapter originated from the saying "Out of the frying pan, into the fire" and from their journey from Gravel Pit to the Thunder Mountains at the beginning.

Also, a warning for possible slash later on in the storyline. Main pairing will probably be Sniper/Scout, for the rest I'm not sure yet if I will do other pairings too or stay with broshipping.

And I am still bad at writing accents so I am sorry if they don't sound strong enough.

Song from the original challenge for this chapter: "Leaving Earth" from the Mass Effect 3 soundtrack

"How much longer till we are finally there? I'm going crazy if I have to sit still for just five more minutes", Scout muttered. "Why the heck did we even have to leave? The gravel pit already became something like a second home to me and now we suddenly have to move just because the REDs were stupid enough to build a base in the middle of the mountains? Since they officially fled the pit we just could have called it a victory and let them rot up there for the rest of eternity but no, we have to follow them and destroy their base. This sucks. Officially. And on ice."

Sniper let out a deep nasally sigh. It had been going on like this since the start of their journey more than three hours ago and it would still continue for the rest of it. The only reason why Scout was sitting in the front of the van instead of together with his team mates in the back was because he was easily getting sick in the back. And after all it was better to deal with a bit of chitty chatter than having to clean vomit from the seats, right? Well, currently Sniper wished for a van-load full of vomit instead.

"You haven't been sitting still for even a second since we left so why would you suddenly do it for five minutes?" he said.

"Oh come on man, you know what I mean."

"No, I don't. If you hate to stay in here so much then go to the back or climb out of the window and play on the roof."

"I would if you weren't driving like an idiot."

Sniper shot him a glare.

"Oh excuse me for trying to get us safely over a bumpy road up a bunch of bloody mountains. I would gladly let you take the wheel - if I didn't want to keep my van for longer than one more minute."

"Hey, eyes on the street. You are already driving like a madman without ... WATCH OUT!"

Sniper's eyes darted back on the street and he hit the brakes but it was too late. The RED Spy who had become visible right in front of the van crashed into the hood, was slammed against the windshield and then hurled to the other side of the road where he remained lying motionless. The van stopped a bit further away.

"Holy shit..." Scout whispered. His widened eyes were locked on the bloody streaks that covered the windshield.

"Stay inside, I'll go and have a look", Sniper said before he pushed open the door and jumped out of his van.

The door behind Scout now was opened as well.

"What's the matter? Why have we stopped? Do we have a road kill? And if so, can we eat it?" Soldier asked and eyed up the blood on the window.

"Spy ... A freaking Spy", Scout silently said. "He hit our car. Sniper is out to examine him."

With a mild smile Spy patted the boy's shoulder.

"Mon cher, why so upset? You have seen many body parts flying around on the battlefield, not just from a Spy and suddenly you become afraid of a bit of blood?"

"No ... not like this. This was different. There is something ... horribly wrong out there."

"Let me see it. I'm zhe doctor on zhis team after all."

With that Medic squeezed pass the others and climbed out of the van as well.

Sniper knelt beside the Spy's corpse, close enough to examine the wounds but still with enough distance as if he was afraid the dead could suddenly reach out a hand and grab him but also because of the stench. It wasn't coming from the dead body - that would have been way too fresh for such a smell - but rather from some of his wounds - as if those parts of his body were dead for months. But how? The REDs had moved here maybe two days ago and as far as he could remember they all were in better shape the last time he had seen them. And then those wounds - those were definitely not only caused by being hit by a car. At those few spots were his suit was torn open little pieces of flesh were missing or his skin showed bite marks. Sniper couldn't recall any carnivorous animals living in this area but if so how large must that pack have been that nine mercs couldn't have dealt with it? Sniper was sure that the whole team must have been attacked and then Spy was either separated from the rest of the group or escaped as the only survivor. He couldn't quite imagine that this guy had just wandered off on his own just to be attacked by a pack of whatever.

He turned around when he heard footsteps behind him.

"There's something rotten and I don't just mean the stench of that corpse", he said to Medic when the doctor knelt down to have a closer look too. "Have ya seen all those injuries? And where's the bloody respawn? He should have been gone by now."

"Zhose are human bite marks", Medic said. "Could also be a big monkey but I rather go for human."

"Did you see the sense this makes? Yeah, me neither."

With an unnatural rasping moan the Spy suddenly came back to life and tried to grab Sniper's wrist. The two mercs backed away. In a reflex they wanted to grab their weapons only to be reminded that they had left them in the van. The Spy stared at them with dead eyes and tried to crawl after them. A shot rang out and he sunk back to the ground again, now with a new wound gracing his head. The two spun around. Scout stood behind them, eyes widened and breathing heavily, the scattergun still pointed at the Spy.

"I-I couldn't take it any longer, staying back inside not knowing what was going on so I followed you outside as well", he stuttered. The words left his mouth so fast that his voice cracked. "This stench is terrible. Is he gone for good now?"

Sniper couldn't remember if he had ever been so relieved to see the boy but before he could thank him more of those wheezing rasping noises were heard coming closer.

"Back, everyone. Sounds like the things that had been hunting the dead Spy have arrived and I'm not sure if I want to know what they are."

For minutes Sniper hadn't said a single word, his eyes were locked on the street. And Scout did the same for a change. Behind them the voices of the others were heard. Medic had already told them what had happened.

"Thanks for killing that bloody wanker, mate", Sniper said and risked a quick glance at Scout.

"Heh, no problem. Guess you would be completely screwed without me anyways."

At least from the sound of his voice he was his old cocky self again but the look in his eyes had told otherwise. The boy was scared and who could blame him. Killing people or seeing them die while knowing they would return back to life in a few seconds - probably pretty pissed because they were killed again or because the respawn made them sick or gave them a headache but at least alive - was one thing. But someone dying in a car crash only to come back as some kind of undead creature and then being shot and killed for good - that was something completely different. Sniper pondered if he should say something to comfort him but probably it was the best to just stay silent for the moment.

The van dropped into another large bump on the road and a loud crack was heard. For a quick moment it was spinning out of control but then Sniper managed to stop it before it could hit anything or even worse skip over the edge and drop into the depth - as far as he remembered they were up pretty high already.

"No ... no, nonononono, fuck!" Sniper cursed and gave the broken tire a kick.

This time they all had left the vehicle and stood around looking pretty helpless. The Thunder Mountain base wasn't that far away anymore but after what had happened on the street it might not have been the greatest idea if they all went there without a way to retreat fast. It didn't help much either when a normally calm guy lost his temper while the normally energetic one silently leaned against the door with his arms tightly crossed in front of his chest.

"I could repair that", Engineer said. "The problem is how do we find materials to fix a car in that wilderness?"

"I'm sure there's a lot of scrap in the base", Scout said. "If you can tell me what I shall look for I can get in there fast and fetch it before they even notice I had been there. In case there's really someone there." The way he looked gave the lie to the light-hearted sound of his voice.

"Non, in this case it might be safer to send someone who can never be noticed, not during it and also not afterwards", Spy said. "That way I can also examine the area and see if it is even safe to stay or if we should get away fast."

"You sure? These things came after the RED Spy even though he was invisible until he bumped into us", Sniper said.

A crooked smile slipped over Spy's face. "Don't worry, this is the team with the professional." A short pause, then, "If anything else fails I at least won't run into a car."

A horrible stench greeted him when Spy climbed down the narrow path into the camp. He covered mouth and nose with his arm but that barely helped. Some of the creatures looked up from whatever carcass they were feeding on when he crossed a platform above their heads but thankfully they returned their attention to the carcass a few seconds later. Could they smell him or otherwise sense his presence? He hoped not and that they only had turned their heads because of the creaking wood.

When he closed one of the doors to the RED base behind him he could allow himself to breathe freely again. No stench in the building didn't just mean airtight sealed doors and windows but also that those things hadn't found a way inside - yet. Just in case he remained cloaked when he moved on.

The rooms and corridors were bathed in the dim flickering lights of the indicator boards above the doors to supply rooms and the exits indicating that there was at least some emergency power system running. The easily reachable respawn room on the upper floor was completely looted. Probably the REDs had taken everything they could and then fled the base. But what had happened to them afterwards? Was their Spy the first and only one to die so far? At least he couldn't remember anyone familiar among the few mangled creatures he had seen down there.

From the big window in that room he had a good view over the whole area and what he saw made him breathe in sharply. How many had he passed by before? Eight? Ten? Well, that was nothing compared to the crowd out there. It was as if everyone from the next village had decided to pay the Thunder Mountain base a visit. Probably they really had - after their deaths. Spy stumbled back a few steps. His eyes were frozen on the scenery but he forced himself to look away. He had to get those damn supplies and then the team needed to leave the mountains immediately.

One of the other doors downstairs with the sign "keep out" was locked but that alone wasn't enough to keep a Spy out. A few seconds later and he had access to even more storages and the control room. In the latter he stopped to take a look at the big screen that normally showed a map. The other computers were out of power but the large screen on the wall had switched to a view of the Alarm-O-Tron. Four words were lit up: "emergency", "mangled", "owns base" and "look out". So the Administrator could still warn them. But where was she now? Or the rest of the staff? Hopefully far away. Quickly he left the room to continue his search.

"We just take over that base and sit it out", Soldier said. "I never feared any enemies and I'm not going to start doing so now."

"Well, normally killed enemies stay dead", Scout said. "Or they respawn. But they surely don't walk around and try to attack you again. I don't wanna stay here for a single second longer."

"I also don't fear an enemy who shows the impudence to walk around after his death. Not as long as this rocket launcher can blow away their damn heads. And any other body part. I want to see how good they can walk when their bodies are scattered all over the battlefield."

"Count me in, lad, an' we can make zombies go ka-boom together", Demoman said and laughed.

"And what if you run out of munition?" Medic asked. "Respawn doesn't work anymore, probably zhe whole base is shut down, zhe next base is far away. What if you can't shoot anymore and zhe base is run over again?"

"I'm with Medic", Heavy said. "Dead men are no problem now but will certainly be later on. We have to get away from here."

"That's what I would have said too", Engineer said and patted the side of the van. "But with that baby we ain't gonna get far. At best we can get it out of the mountains and then hop from resting place to resting place."

"Then that is what we are going to do", Scout quickly agreed. "Nothing can keep me back here any longer and even if all of you are staying. In that case I'm moving on foot just as long as I can get away."

"Oh come on", Soldier tried it again, "How bad can it be? We also have a freaking Pyro on our side who could burn down everything on these damn mountains if he wanted to."

"RED has a Pyro too", Sniper reminded him. "And if you had seen that Spy on the run colliding with my van you would have been able to guess how useful their Pyro must have been. They must have given up or why else was he on the run?"

Pyro abstained from choosing anyone's side. He was distracted by a lizard scampering over the rocks.

"And even if we run out of ammo, we can still continue fighting with our bare hands as long as we just get back right in time so the Medic can heal us", Soldier said.

Medic just shook his head. "My pack has to be refilled and zhe gun has to be charged too once in a while. Give me a laboratory and enough electricity and we can do it but not in a situation like zhis."

"I too agree with a retreat", Spy's voice came from up above. He became visible and dropped a small box filled with scrap material he had found then he climbed down the last few steps. The unmasked parts of his face appeared to be paler than usual but he managed to keep his pokerface while he spoke. "The base is completely overrun. Not a single sign of the REDs or the staff, also barely any supplies but therefore a good hundred of those crawlers. If we stay here we are like sitting ducks."

Demo and Soldier only exchanged a scowl.

"If you are still not convinced enough, read this", Spy continued and tossed them a two days old newspaper he had found in the control room. Soldier caught it and quickly skimmed through it while Demo looked over his shoulder.

"Something about an experiment ... A virus", he mumbled, "First infections occurred near Roswell but then spread north ... Wait, I thought things like those only happen in Savannah while Roswell is that thing with the aliens. Anyways... It says that anyone can be infected by close enough contact with other infected but that the virus won't show any effect until death. A cure is currently worked on. Survivors were brought to the safe quarantine camp in Colorado."

"All of us have already been infected by simply touching the same van our unfortunate RED Spy happened to bump into", Spy said when Soldier passed the paper to anyone who wanted to have a more detailed read. "Now all we can do is getting out of this country while trying to stay alive."

"By hopping from pit stop to pit stop, hoping one of the rescue teams is still collecting survivors once in a while and praying our vehicle won't break under our bums", Sniper said.

Engineer's work had been a quick fix, just enough to get them out of the mountains. The bigger and better repairs would be made as soon as they found a safer resting place. After they had followed the Hale River for a while and dusk had already been falling they finally reached such a place in the form of an abandoned farm surrounded by fields of high and dried out grass.

"Guess it's just a nightshift for me then", Engineer commented while he watched the others scatter all over the place looking if it really was as safe as it appeared to be or where the best resting places were.

"Nah, not just you", Sniper replied. "I'm keeping watch for the first part of the night. Can't really expect from you to have an eye on the surrounding as well."

Aside of the frequent metallic noises while Engineer worked on the van the night was calm. Once in a while crickets were chirping. Sniper sat on a porch, his back leaned against the wall, and watched the gentle movement of the grass. He rubbed his burning eyes. According to his watch it was past 2 am now. Maybe it was time for someone else to take over the watch duty. Or maybe...

A sudden sound jolted him out of his half-sleep and he quickly sat up. Was it just the wind rustling through the dry grass or a wild animal? The clanging sounds stopped too - either Engineer had just finished his work or he was listening as well. Sniper narrowed his eyes, even held his breath. And then he heard those noises that sent chills down his spine, silently at first but they quickly came closer. Wheezing, rasping moans in the darkness.


	2. 02 Long road ahead

**Fortress of Death**

_Chapter 02 - Long road ahead_

Comment: Oh my goodness, gunfights. I have written loads of fighting scenes in the past but they all were either with element or Chaos powers (which I both could basically shove into the magic category) or melee weapons, but never anything with firearms. Also most of the books that I own aren't too helpful since about all the fights in there can be put into the magic or melee categories as well. So I'm writing those scenes without any examples and hope I won't royally screw up.

Songs from the original challenge for this chapter: "Fireheart" by Two Steps From Hell (for the short fighting scene in the beginning), "Long long way to go" by Phil Collins (for some later scenes)

Sniper let out his breath with a curse. He raised his rifle to his shoulder and fired a blast at the first creature that showed its face – a wakeup call for the other mercenaries - then he drew his kukri, jumped off the roof and ran towards the van. For this amount of enemies the rifle reloaded just way too slow.

Two more corpses were already down, the blood emitting from their skulls speckled the ground.

"Some of them are terribly fast", Engineer called from his spot on top of the van. "And they are coming from all sides."

A rocket hit the ground a few metres away, blasting away the zombies which had just come out of the tall grass and a few of those who had still been in hiding. The shockwave caused the van to rock.

"Hey, watch out! I haven't repaired it to be destroyed by one of our own."

Demo had learned from Soldier's mistake and rushed towards the field with drawn Eyelander.

Heavy defended the other side of the area, firing round after round into the assailing masses.

"Doctor, cover my back!" he called over his shoulder.

A zombie leapt off a low barn roof behind him. A quick movement and its head was rolling over the floor - decapitated mid-air by the uber saw.

"Covered", Medic replied.

Since Scout and Spy were already fighting at the westward side of the property Sniper rushed to the unprotected east side, mowing down a wave of zombies that had already reached the buildings. He could just dodge the fire blast coming from the side, roaring over their heads, in time.

"Goddammit, stop that! The grass is way too dry!"

For a second Pyro stared at him but then he put the flamethrower on his back, unbuckled the axe from his belt and stormed forward again.

The west side was probably the most protected one with a few lower buildings and high fences that marked former grazing grounds. The first few zombies who tried to climb over the fence in plain view were shot before they even reached the top. Some others however came over the buildings. Spy shot one off the roof then spun around but it was already too late - the next creature rammed into him and dragged him to the ground. But before the zombie could lunge out for another attack its head exploded and a crimson spray rained down. Scout standing on top of a roof just opened his mouth for a comment when a bullet whipped past his ear and killed the zombie right behind him.

"No need to thank me, mon ami", Spy said, a snarky grin on his blood smeared face. "Now we are quits."

The wave was over as fast as it had started and the night sank back into silence. Only the many corpses stayed as a reminder of the battle.

"Yuck", Scout commented the scenery and gave the nearest head a kick.

"If it was closer I would jump into the Hale River immediately", Spy said and wrinkled his nose.

"We will get there soon, so feel free to do so. No one will stop you. But leave some clean water for the rest of us", Sniper said. "Where did those bloody mongrels even come from?" he added. "I thought we were far away from the next towns."

"From the mountains I would say. Some of them looked awfully familiar", Spy commented. "Don't look at me like that. You would know someone too if you had been balancing above their heads several times. Looks like they had either noticed me after all or spotted the van and then about half of the camp followed us. No wonder we drew so much attention. We are the only living food here after all. Given the running speed of some of them and the - I must say crawling speed of our vehicle it might not have been hard to catch up with us soon."

"How is the van?" Sniper asked.

"Well, it can continue crawling if that's what you wanna hear", Engineer replied. "Should only drive fast in the case of emergency though and not with all of us aboard. Also it runs low on gas. If we follow the river and get to some gas stations we might be able to stock up. At least it's still saver inside the old gal than out on the streets."

"Well, since we already decided to run like little girlies", Soldier said, "this is exactly what we should do."

Thud!

Another time the baseball forcefully connected with the wall and bounced off again. And another time Scout caught it mid-air. He put so much force into his throws as if he wanted to let all of his anger out on the ball. From his lookout position on top of the van Sniper watched him for a few seconds before he returned his attention to the surrounding at the other side of the fence. He could clearly understand the boy's frustration. For days they had been on the run, smaller attacks wasted their ammo and the medigun's energy and repeatedly forced them to keep moving or change their routes and take the long way round. Barely enough time to do the much needed repairs on their vehicle or even to sleep. The gas stations were looted - gas was rare, food even rarer. For now they had at least found a safe place to stay and rest - it was surrounded by a fence - but just a lack of attacks wouldn't save them from starving to death sooner or later. Feeling so helpless, it was terrible. Also fear had become a loyal companion over time. Fighting at the gravel pit and getting shot several times or shredded into pieces wasn't pleasurable, neither was the process of respawning but at least they still could respawn at that time and never ran the risk of actually dying. Now death followed them anytime and everywhere and so did the fear - fear of dying, but also of the death of a friend.

"Stop that bloody noise or I'll beat the crap outta ya!"

That sudden scream caused Sniper to spin around again. For days they all had been on edge, some of them however could deal with stress better than others. The Demoman definitely belonged to the others. Due to the lack of alcohol his mind was as clear as it hadn't been for years. Unfortunately that mainly made him realize how much he hated everything. Right now he threateningly towered in front of Scout.

"Hell, sorry man, but I rather want to do something than repeatedly being reminded how much I'm starving", Scout retorted, seemingly annoyed but not willing to start a fight.

"Leave the boy alone. He's right. Better get involved in some training than being permanently remembered of the body's weakness. But hell, we could need a lot of distraction with such lousy food distribution."

Sniper let out a deep sigh and covered his face with his palm. It was good that Soldier wanted to end a fight but why did he always have to do that by choosing one of the sides and then starting an argumentation on his own?

"If you haven't noticed, lad", Demo snarled, I am responsible for food. Do you want to tell me how to do my job?"

"I just said the distribution was lousy because not everyone got something even when we still had enough for everyone. But yes, maybe it is better if someone else did the job."

"And maybe I was trying to set rations so we wouldn't use up everything immediately but fine, do it, if you think you can do better." He gestured at the others who had slowly appeared to see what the ruckus was about. "It appears to be lunch time so let's see how you can feed nine hungry people with that. And this time it's really the last we have."

The things he shoved into Soldier's hands looked like two cookies, half of an apple and a beef jerky. Unbelieving Soldier stared at the four items, then into the others expectant faces.

"Well", he slowly started. "At the war food was given to those most important to the team, to the women and to the weak. I doubt someone has hidden a woman somewhere here so..."

He paused again but the decision was taken off his shoulders when Heavy said, "Medic is important to team. Without we would have died long ago."

Medic hesitated but when no one objected to Heavy's suggestion he took the offered cookie.

"Without the Engineer we might not have been here either. At least not that fast and without the protection maybe not all of us", Sniper said.

Engineer was honestly surprised to be one of the chosen but he gladly took his ration.

"Scout", Spy said. "He already was scrawny before but the way he looks now I get the feeling he will be our first starving victim."

Scout might not have liked it that he was chosen because he was seen weak and not as a credit to the team but the apple made up for it.

"And the beef jerky is for the one who becomes a jerk when he is hungry", Soldier said and offered Demo the last piece of food.

At first Demo glared at him but then he saw that Soldier didn't want to insult him but rather make up for their stupid fight before with a joke and a friendly offer. "Come on, take it. Do you think I haven't noticed how less you have taken the past few days?"

"Thank you", Demo silently said. "And I hope you have seen it's not always easy for me to choose who is allowed to eat or not. But as if it would matter any longer, now that everything is gone."

"We are just here for a day or so. Let's look around if we maybe can find abandoned houses no one else has found before", Soldier suggested.

"I can go hunting", Sniper said.

"You trying to snipe a squirrel with that rifle", Scout said, a hint of amusement in his voice. "Now that's something I wanna see."

"I prefer bow and arrow for that unless I want to scare the wildlife away after one loud bang but you can come anyways."

"You bet!"

Soldier and Demo had been following the street for a while before they wandered towards the river and through high reed. A house hadn't been in sight but maybe they were able to find small animals closer to the water. Besides it protected them a bit from the sun and the heat. As if hunger alone wasn't awful enough already.

"Hey, look at this", Soldier whispered and bent down the reed a bit further. The high grass in that area was trampled down, backpacks and sleeping bags were scattered all over it. But whoever had been living here was now gone.

Carefully Soldier stepped out of their hiding place and into the camp. He picked up one of the backpacks then stopped in his actions to look around. Still nothing to be seen or heard.

"This is a freaking paradise", he laughed out loud and waved the Demoman to come over. "They have food here. And even some ammo. Well, I doubt we could feed a minigun with that but it could fit into a pistol."

Demo however didn't seem to share his enthusiasm.

"This already belongs to someone. How can we know if they won't come back any minute just to find their belongings robbed?"

"Don't be silly. If they were still somewhere around do you really think they would have left their goods unattended?"

"Maybe they didn't expect other looters around here..."

"No, I would say they either left in a hurry because they were attacked and then they surely won't come back or they are already dead. And besides, those things left over at some of the gas stations also once belonged to someone else."

"That's not the same."

"So what? Do you want us all to starve just because of some unknown strangers who will probably never come back to their camp anyways? Nine more zombies to be added to the crowd?"

"No, that's not what I want", Demo sighed and with heavy heart he grabbed one of the backpacks too. "It's just... This isn't right."

Soldier slowly shook his head.

"This whole crap isn't right", he silently said. "But better taking the risk of something that might probably happen than of letting one of our friends starve for sure. Come, I still want to see what's further north. If we don't find anything in the next hour or so we will return with what we have."

"Man, it's good to get out of the crowd for a change", Scout said and breathed in so deeply one might have thought he hadn't even be allowed to properly breathe back in the camp.

Sniper chuckled. "And I thought you were a city boy. Shouldn't you be used to crowds?"

"Not to being close to the same eight people all the freaking time", Scout protested. "In the city I have an apartment to live in and don't need to be with all those people 24/7 and also in the gravel pit I had a lot more private space. But here I can't even be all by myself for five minutes without risking to get eaten alive. Do you even know what a lucky bastard you are being on guard duty most of the time and sitting on that camper van?"

"Not that lucky considering how often you are trying to sit in my spot."

"But that's the only place where I can get at least a bit of space. And it's not like you mind me up there, is it? You can be glad someone likes a camper like you for a change", Scout teased.

Sniper only responded with a weak grin. But yes, it was true - as annoying as Scout could be at times, Sniper never really minded to be with him. In a strange way his bubbling nature even gave him hope. A situation was never too bad as long as at least one of them could still laugh. And lately Scout had spent a lot of time with him, might it have been on the van or when they reconnoitred the closest area around a new resting place together. Maybe he liked being with him because Sniper was one of the only two people who had never shouted at Scout for being annoying. The other one was Engineer but the Texan preferred to stay down in the crowd and concentrated more on the condition of the van than on anything else around him.

"Hush now!" Sniper suddenly whispered and put a hand on Scout's shoulder to stop him and drag him down to hide in the tall grass. He nodded at the river. "Looks like we got our first prey for the day."

"That's a raccoon. Can you even eat that?" Scout silently asked

"We find out. Better than starvin' I'd say", Sniper whispered and drew his bow.

The arrow drove right through the small animal's torso killing it on the spot.

"Heh, not even a headshot? You must be the worst sniper I have ever seen", Scout mocked when they both got up.

"Nah, it wouldn't have been pretty. Also would have left an awful mess in your bag now."

"In MY bag? You want to say I have to carry that thing in my bag?" Scout stared at him in shock.

"Don't be such a weenie. I bet your bag has seen more disgusting things than a bleeding raccoon in the past few days."

"Not inside of it."

"So I shall carry it around like a strange purse?"

"That is your problem."

Sniper sighed. "Fine, we will hide it here for now - the smell of raccoon blood might frighten other animals away when we continue our hunt taking it with us - and when we return I will carry it back to the camp."

Further down the river they spotted a rabbit.

"Can I try it this time?" Scout asked.

With a shrug Sniper handed him the Huntsman and an arrow. He looked over his shoulder while the boy aimed, lightly corrected the position of his arms.

"And now keep it steady", he whispered close to Scout's ear.

The arrow hit the ground a good metre away from the rabbit. The animal made a jump into the air, turned tail and raced into the bushes.

"Guess we might have had more luck if we had let the Boston Bunny do a race against the rabbit", Sniper said with a hint of amusement. "Your hands shivered way too much. What was wrong? Afraid of a rabbit?"

"I ... uhm ... I ... uh ... hell, no!" Scout's cheeks had turned into a bright red. "Oh to hell with that rabbit! Don't you dare tell anyone that I royally screwed up!"

They were already on their way back when Sniper stopped Scout again but this time the boy wouldn't have needed the hand on his shoulder since he had already slowed down at the sight. Several persons were standing at the door of the fence - other survivors - and Medic was talking to them. Sniper gestured Scout to silently walk closer until they were in hearing range. Further down the road they saw two more well-known figures - Soldier and Demo had returned from their exploration trip as well and now followed the example of the others and stayed hidden.

"We really need someone's help", one of the strangers supporting another one said. "Our friend was hurt and we have nothing left to take care of his wounds."

"In Ordnung, I let you in, but only you and your friend. Zhe rest stays outside and waits", Medic replied and carefully opened the door.

That moment the injured seemed to have forgotten about his wounds; he charged at Medic and forced him to his knees. The other guy pushed a gun against the doctor's temple. The remaining mercs inside the camp were on their feet within a second but the man shouted, "Attack us and we scatter his brain all over the place! All we want is our supplies back then we will leave in peace but otherwise..."

He left the last sentence hanging in the air unfinished.

Heavy narrowed his eyes. "You hurt Medic and you are dead", he growled but he left his gun untouched.

"I am sorry but we don't have your supplies", Engineer said as calm as possible. "If we had some on our own we'd gladly share with y'all but that ain't gonna happen since we haven't found anything for days."

"Then who else should be stealing from us? Zombies? There's no one else around but you!" a woman screamed at him.

"Please, stay calm", Engineer tried to pacify her. "We can team up and then we're gonna find other supplies for y'all on the way."

"Other supplies?! You're one to talk! You just arrived here safely with your bloody van. You didn't have to go through the same we did. Do you know what it's like to gather supplies in completely infected towns? Did you have to shoot into the faces of turned friends? Do you know what it's like to see a son die with his face in the gutter or a loved one bleed out in a field somewhere?"

"I'm deeply sorry for all your losses", Engineer silently said. "But we still can't..."

"What are you even waiting for? Just get rid of these bastards! Just shoot that fucker!"

The guy's finger on the trigger twitched. Medic squeezed his eyes shut, shivering awaited death.

An arrow pierced through the guy's head. A shot rang out after all but it only hit the pack on the doctor's back. Another one of the survivors drew his gun at Medic instead but the bullet missed too when he was stabbed in the back by an invisible dagger. That was the command for the mercs to grab their weapons. The other survivors scattered, sought cover behind walls and rocks. Heavy rushed forward, dragged Medic back to his feet and out of the danger zone. The woman who previously had screamed at them used that chance to lean out of her cover and shoot at them but the fire of the unexperienced shooter only caused them graze wounds. In response her upper body was nearly shredded into pieces by the perma-fire of the minigun.

Three of the survivors now had detected the uncovered enemies in their backs and opened fire on them. The four mercs dodged down into the grass while the bullets whipped over their heads. Maybe they also would have hit if Pyro hadn't sent out a fire blast that forced them back into their covers and gave his friends the chance to swarm out. However, one of the survivors leaned out. He risked severe burns but he was able to deal a few hits. With a cry of pain Demo hit the ground. Soldier let out a loud curse and opened fire at the already wounded guy before the latter could drag himself back behind the rock then he helped up Demo and with Pyro's covering fire supported him until they reached the group of lonely trees where Scout and Sniper already had sought cover.

"Don't stare at me like that", Demo brought out between clenched teeth while he pressed his hands against his right leg to stop the bleeding. "It's just a flesh wound. Our Medic has healed worse than that."

"Yeah, now we only need to survive for the next few minutes", Scout said and dealt another few shots before quickly withdrawing. "I only wished he would do that more often", he commented after the Spy had suddenly appeared behind one of the survivors' cover again, shot him then quickly disappeared before the others could shoot at him too.

"He's just a show-off", Sniper said.

"Or maybe he just can't run as fast as the Scout and can't stay cloaked forever, patate", a voice said beside him and the Spy appeared between them. "All the other time he has to hide just like a normal human."

"Good that you mention you are human or else someone might have started thinking you were a psychotic god", Sniper coolly commented. He leaned past Scout to get a better aim and another arrow found its goal.

With a mocking salutation Spy vanished into thin air again.

As soon as the last survivor had fallen Soldier dragged up his wounded friend again and helped him back to the camp. He tried not to look at any of the bodies on his way.

'Civilians', it rang through his head. 'Those were all civilians who had somehow stumbled upon weapons and picked them up to defend themselves. We are the professionals here and we just murdered a group of civilians.'

Knowing who had stolen their supplies and thus started that battle - and thus also was indirectly responsible for his friend's injuries - only added to the nagging guilt he already felt.

Medic was kneeling on the ground, Heavy by his side, a hand on his shoulder but the doctor didn't seem to notice it, neither did he take note of Archimedes who had just returned from the safe place up at the roofs, landed on his shoulder and nestled to his cheek as if to comfort him as well. Both mercs still had the bloody scratches on their skins and when Soldier came closer he also saw the reason why. In the doctor's lap there was the pack that always had powered the medigun, perforated with bullet holes, blue liquid oozing from it.

"It's completely damaged", Medic silently said. "With zhat bit left I can possibly stop bleedings but it cannot heal anymore." He looked up when the other mercs approached, noticed the wounds on Demo's leg. "Bullets have to be removed", he said as if he was reading from an invisible sheet of paper. "Zhere is a first aid kit in zhe car but nothing is sterile. Bleeding can still be stopped afterwards with a few drops but zhere is still zhe risk of an infection. We could need more medication later. Heavy?"

Heavy understood the short nod and helped Demo to follow Medic over to the van. Soldier remained back; he knew he could barely do anything for his friend now.

"And after that, can we please leave this place?" he bleakly said. "It smells too much like death."


	3. 03 No easy way out

**Fortress of Death**

_Chapter 03 - No easy way out_

Comment: Archimedes? I guess in the previous chapter there was his only appearance in the story. I run the risk to forget way too often that there is still a pet pigeon by the Medic's side. Just assume that he's always following the mercs or sitting somewhere up above.

Song from the original challenge for this chapter: "No easy way out" by Robert Tepper (song from Rocky IV)

For three days they had been staying at their new home now - the grounds of a car dealer from the look of it. The company sign was missing and the way the garage and offices looked it had been closed a long time ago - no wonder since in the middle of nowhere the owner would hardly have done good business - but at least the buildings and the fence around the whole ground were in good enough shape to call it a safe haven for the moment. The van now had a lot of parking space, the mercs a lot more personal space which might have been one of the reasons for the reduce in disputes. Another good thing was the few old cars someone had left next to the ground. None of them would drive, that was for sure but they were a good spare parts depot for the van and Engineer was able to do better repairs. For the first time since weeks their vehicle was able to move faster than the average running speed of a human again.

However, a faster travelling speed was of little use when they had no idea where to go. Other bypassing travellers with whom the mercs had traded some of their food for gasoline brought bad news from the north. The safe refugee camp there was no longer safe after there had been incidents and now the south of Colorado was probably contaminated as well. There were still other labs where refugees were brought which now had enforced their security measures but those were somewhere in the east and no one knew where exactly.

So close - they already had been so close to the border, just one more day with the crawling speed or not more than three hours with normal speed and they would have reached their destiny.

And now aside of not knowing where to go and zombies frequently crawling around their fence they had to deal with yet another problem.

"How's he doing today, doc?" Soldier asked when he returned from his night shift on guard duty. Medic just gave him a bleak glance and shook his head.

"Not much better. His fever seems to be rising. What we really could need are some medications."

Soldier silently cursed. Before it had just been faintness which they had believed to be caused by the blood loss or complications after the transfusion but then Demoman's condition had gotten worse and the possibility of an infection couldn't be excluded anymore. And it was all his fault. The feeling of guilt was eating him up. If he had listened to his friend, if he hadn't insisted on taking the other survivors' supplies, it all wouldn't have happened - no wounded, no deaths.

"Don't blame yourself", Medic said as if he had read Soldier's mind and put a hand on his shoulder. "In zhese times zhere will be even more victims. Maybe zhey would have died somehow else even when zhey kept zheir food. Or maybe one of us would have starved to death. Hopefully our exploration team has more luck today."

The exploration team consisting of Scout and Sniper was getting ready for departure. Their destination was a town in the north - only 20 minutes away when they used the van to get there.

"I'm up to my last few rounds", Scout said when he reloaded his scattergun. "Hope they don't just have a pharmacy there but also something where you could stock up on ammo."

"I thought in the US weapons and their accessories were sold in every one-horse town", Sniper said with a slight grin and climbed into the vehicle.

It was the van's first farther travel with new - or better said at least not damaged - parts. Now it would show if Engineer's work was good enough for travelling distances or only for testing rounds on the parking space.

"I don't know what I expected from this town. Maybe a bit more ... life?" Scout commented when they wandered through the empty streets. They already might have passed a corpse or two but those had been gone for good. No walking dead yet. Either the people had fled soon enough or they had gathered up closer to the centre of the town - if before or after their deaths was debatable.

"I'm kinda glad about that. Could'a been worse if we met them - no matter if living or dead. The living would loot the whole place empty before we could and the dead ... well, y' know", Sniper said and climbed up a windowsill of a storefront so he could look through the broken glass. "Looks like they already had been here though - nothing but yawning void."

"There's one of our pharmacies", Scout called from a bit further down the street. "But same problem here. Some raw materials, no drugs."

"Take them anyways; maybe the doctor knows something to do with them. As far as I know there's another pharmacy midtown."

A silent but sudden noise startled them. A few zombies had appeared at the corner a few houses away. They seemingly hadn't noticed the two mercs yet but were still staggering towards them.

"Oh piss, they are already out here? Come, we need to find another way."

Side by side they hurried through the streets, always close to walls, always ready to go into cover whenever they heard another strange noise - and those became more frequent the closer they got to the centre of the town.

"This should be it", Sniper whispered and nodded at one of the small backside windows of a building. To the front they couldn't go - from the sound of it there it was crowded by those creatures. "At least if I remember the map we had correctly."

"That map was from the 50s. They could have moved in the past ten years."

"Well, that's a risk we have to take. At least it's still a store and there might be something else we could need." He ran a hand over the glass, slightly knocked at it. "Looks and sounds fragile enough. After I do that we will only have a few seconds. Grab whatever you find. We probably have to shoot our way out. You ready?"

Scout silently nodded. He looked as tensed up as never before in his life.

Sniper took off his vest, covered his hand in it then rammed his fist against the window which broke with a loud clash. At the front bedlam broke loose. Quickly Scout dragged himself up and through the window. The bandages protected his hands but he could feel remains of glass in the frame scratch over his skin. Sniper followed right after, also his hands were protected, one by the glove the other by the vest.

It looked as if this store lately rather had been selling food instead of medications. Only very few cans and packs were left. In the dim light it was hard to see what it contained but the two took it nevertheless, grabbed everything in reach. Some zombies tried to get through the back window; others were banging at the door and the bigger windows in the front. More and more cracks appeared at the glass until it eventually broke. Scout let out a curse and shot at the first few dragging themselves into the room.

"Out through the front!" Sniper shouted after he had turned around and seen that the creatures had found out how to reach and get through the back window. Scout ran towards them, jumped over their heads and shot at them from above. The recoil of his weapon brought him out of balance though. He ungently hit the ground but rolled over, leapt up immediately and started firing at them again. Sniper used the moment of distraction to jump over them as well. As soon as he was out Scout ceased fire and they both ran.

The rasping sounds behind them already had gotten quiet when Sniper suddenly grabbed Scout's wrist and dragged him with him against a house wall.

"There are some right in front of us", he breathlessly whispered.

They crouched down and slowly crawled along a lower wall beside the house.

"Are they still blocking the way?" Scout silently asked. "They are quite hard to hear. I think they have already moved on."

"Wait, let me see."

Sniper stood up so he could have a look over their cover. Scout noticed his muscles stiffened and that he stood like frozen for a moment before he let out a silent curse.

"What is it?" he asked worriedly when Sniper crouched down again.

"You don't want to know, you really don't want to know. No, stay down!"

But Scout had already stood up and now his eyes widened in shock.

Part of the RED team really had made it that far as well - only to meet their demise in this town. Dead eyes turned towards Scout's direction but the boy had already gone into cover again. He slowly slid down the wall and wrapped his arms around his knees. His body was shivering; his eyes were in a straight stare.

"This is ... this could be you and me", he whispered with choked voice. "We will never get out of this alive. We will all die ... just like them ..."

Sniper knelt down beside him, grabbed his shoulders and gently forced him to turn his body towards him a bit.

"Look at me, Scout. Come on, look at me. This is not us and just because they had died and turned doesn't necessarily mean we will too. They had a head start, could stock up on supplies before they left and then were probably taken by surprise when something happened in the city. We were pushed right into the middle of it, had not more than the things that could fit into a van full of people but we learned how to push through and to be prepared for anything and we are still alive. And we will stay alive. It won't be easy but somehow we will get out of this shit."

'I promise', he still wanted to add but somehow he couldn't say it. How could he make a promise when he had no idea how to keep it?

"Come", he gently said when Scout had calmed down a bit again. "Let's go back to the van and drive home. We continue our loot on another day or in another town. Right now it's just too dangerous."

"Yeah ... I don't have any more shots left anyways", Scout silently said and tried not to look at Sniper again.

With the main way blocked they took another route over a construction site. Up at one side of the building, down at the other - at least that was the plan. Scout definitely was better at climbing over half-finished walls so he soon was a few metres ahead and he never looked if Sniper could follow him or not but the latter also didn't call him back. If the boy was ashamed for his outbreak of feelings and wanted some distance then he should have it.

Wheezing moans and a sound as if bricks were forcefully pushed aside ripped him out of his thoughts.

"Not again..." he muttered.

From what he heard there were only one or two on the construction site. Good for someone who was only armed with a bat and an empty gun and someone who only had one more shot left but even better if they could get away without drawing more attention.

"To the van, quick", he called and let out a curse when he turned around only to see the RED Soldier coming up the stairs - and he was one of those few zombies still capable of running fast. And from the corner of his eyes Sniper noticed something else.

Scout had reached the bottom of the building when he turned around to see where Sniper was. He opened his mouth, wanted to call he should hurry but that moment something rammed him. The bat flew out of his hand and bounced over the ground a few metres. He quickly crawled backwards, tried to get up and away from that thing in front of him and closer to his bat but the zombified RED Scout lunged down on him again.

The thoughts were spinning in Sniper's head during those few seconds - if he shot the Soldier he would be able to escape but Scout would be attacked, if he climbed down he would escape too but he wouldn't be able to aim, if he shot the RED Scout the Soldier would attack him. In a flowing movement he brought the rifle to his shoulder, barely took a second to aim and shot. The bullet found its goal - RED Scout's head. A moment later Sniper was tackled to the ground. He screamed in pain when a piece of flesh was ripped from his left side and with full force rammed the stock of his weapon against the zombie's head. A sickening crack was heard then the Soldier plummeted to the ground. Holding his bleeding side Sniper tried to struggle free and drag himself to the edge when he was jerked back.

The zombified Scout was only a few centimetres away anymore when his head suddenly turned into a haze of crimson and he dropped down. For a second Scout stared at him with widened eyes then he pushed him off with disgust. His gaze shot back to the floor where he had seen Sniper the last time. He breathed in sharply when he saw what was happening, leapt back to his feet, grabbed his bat and raced towards the building.

However the RED Heavy had been able to appear unnoticed, he didn't even seem to be hungry, just very, very pissed. Sniper was dragged over the ground fast then ripped up and slammed against a wall. Once. Twice. The rifle had dropped out of his weak hand long ago and he was hanging in the Heavy's grip like a ragdoll. The world around him dissolved into blurry colours. Something blue was flying towards them.

The bat hit the Heavy's head with such force that Scout was whiplashed back. The zombie dropped his prey and turned against Scout now but the boy quickly dodged the attack, ran around him and dealt another hit against the back of Heavy's head. Four more strong hits were necessary before he finally cracked the skull and the zombie dropped dead for good.

For a moment Scout stood shakily, trying not to vomit. He had seen so many zombies fall but this one had been someone he once knew. And he had killed him. Just like the RED Spy - during a time that now felt like an eternity ago. But he quickly had himself under control again and rushed over to Sniper. His friend was still more or less awake and pressed his hands against the wound. A thin rivulet of blood was coming forth under his fingers.

"Come on man, don't you die on me", Scout mumbled when he dragged him up. Half Sniper walked on his own, half he was carried the way down and the last few metres to the van. Scout had never driven a vehicle of that size but somehow it had to work.

When they rolled out of the town and onto the highway Sniper slowly slid to the side, his head dropped against Scout's shoulder.

"Hey, stay with me, okay?" Scout said. He thought about it for a moment then he suddenly said. "Uhm ... anyone aside of your parents we should inform in case you kick the bucket?" He tried to make it sound like a joke but he didn't even get the corners of his mouth to twitch.

"Nah, not really", Sniper weakly replied. "Though I think some people down under might be happy when I copped it and they didn't even need to lift a finger. You can write them a post card - with some bloody zombies on it." He chuckled but then grimaced in pain. "Laughing's definitely not a good idea."

"So no little lady waiting for you back at home? Or a whole harem? Or did you receive a Dear John letter when she found out you left your home and her to fight for a worthless gravel pit?"

"You can write to my kangaroo wife." This time he already winced before he could laugh.

"Don't tell me you had been hiding in a bush your whole life scoping and killing people. Guess you were back in civilisation too sometimes, pulling an all-nighter, hooking up all the ladies."

"Not just the..." The sentence ended abruptly and Scout already feared he had fallen unconscious but then he continued. "Why are we even talking about that now?"

"I need something to keep you talking. So you will stay awake."

"So you want me to tell stories? Wanna hear a touching story?"

"Yeah, I know, once upon a time you..." This time Scout couldn't continue. "Can't we rather just talk about other things? The good old times for example?"

"You mean that time when you were still new to the camp, we had our first drinking party, you immediately got pissed like a newt after just two drinks and then wet your bed the same night? Yeah, those were good times."

"No! Can we never talk about that again?"

Sniper's grin turned into a grimace. "Promised... Blast, holding back laughter hurts about as much."

"How can you even joke around in a situation like this?"

"What else shall I do? Cry? Hit the panic button?" Slowly his voice became slurred. "No, I've been a sarcastic bastard my whole life and I wanna face the final curtain with a bow."

"Don't talk like that. I will get you back to the camp in time and you will make it out of this alive. I promise."

'I promise' - those two words he hadn't been able to say before. But Scout was giving him hope, like he always had done since this all started, even now when he was closer to death than ever before. He wanted to believe him. He didn't want to die. Sniper tried to lift his head so he could look at Scout's face but he was too weak even for that.

"Look, the camp is already in sight", Scout called out. "Just one more minute and we are there."

"Yeah ... just a bit ... and we made it ..." His eyes fell shut.

"Snipes? Oh come on, don't do that! Please don't do that to me!"

No reply.

Pyro who was opening the gates could jump out of the way just in time when the van bombed pass him and stopped with squealing tyres. The door was slammed open and Scout could barely drag out Sniper before he broke down to the ground weakened by exhaustion and desperation.

"Get Medic, we have an emergency!" he called at Pyro then remained kneeling on the floor, holding Sniper in his arms as if letting go off him meant his certain death.

"What the hell?" Soldier had come closer and now stared at Sniper. "Have you completely lost it? You have brought a dying man in here. He can turn any second."

"No!" Scout screamed. "He's not dead yet! He can still be healed!"

Soldier slapped him in the face.

"You are out of your mind, boy! Look at that bite! Think of the amount of blood he must have lost! He is half dead and how much do we have left to heal someone?! If you don't blast that bullet through his head then I will do it!"

"You bloody bastard!" Now tears were running over Scout's face. "Then why don't you go in there and kill the other one who we don't have the meanings to heal for? Go ahead and shoot Demo, you son of a bitch!"

"Why you little..."

Soldier bared his teeth and clenched his fists but then he was hold back by Heavy and Medic stepped between them.

"Stop fighting in front of zhis building. Zhis is a hospital. Well, no, it's not but you know what I mean." He knelt down to have a look at Sniper's wounds. "Zhere is still enough liquid left so I can close zhat, not sure about inner wounds until I examined him closer. He lost a lot of blood. Tools for transfusion are still available, not sterile anymore but zhey have to do it. Only one of us has zhe same blood type if I remember correctly. Go and get Spy, Pyro. Now if you please would let go of him, Scout."

"Not as long as this bloody bastard is still there!"

"He won't come into zhe hospital. But I can't examine anyzhing as long as you are holding on to him."

"But ... I wanna stay with him..."

"Come 'ere, son. You ain't gonna help anyone when you cling to him like this", a soft voice said and gently pulled him away.

"It's all my fault ... I just wanna stay with him ..." Scout mumbled but he let it happen that Engineer led him away while Heavy carefully lifted up Sniper and carried him towards the office building.

Sitting next to Pyro and Engineer in front of a campfire Scout leaned backwards until he felt the van behind him and gazed at the night sky. It wasn't a cold night and the fire was warming him up but still he was shivering. Earlier Soldier had come by to apologize but actually there wasn't really a need for it since Scout had already forgiven him. They all were on the edge and he knew the others long enough to know who of them would explode first during such times. However he couldn't forgive himself. Had he only stayed close to Sniper then it all wouldn't have happened. They would have eliminated the RED Soldier together, would have gotten away before the Heavy was there and the zombified Scout would never have stood a chance against two mercs, even if he had caught them by surprise. But no, he had to run from Sniper like an embarrassed little child and was caught off guard like a noob. Sniper's blood was on his hands - both, literally and figuratively. If he died it was his fault. Scout closed his eyes. It was burning in his throat but he didn't want to cry, not again. Still the tears were soon running over his face. If the other two had noticed it they stayed silent about it and continued staring at the fire.

"How are patients doing?" Heavy asked when Medic came up the roof of the office building and sat down beside him. Being the doctor of the team he never had to be on guard duty but he often came up here when Heavy was. Just enjoying a calm moment and his company.

"At least Sniper won't die because of his visible wounds or zhe loss of blood anymore", he replied bleakly and stared at the ground. "Zherefor zhere are ozher complications. Light fever, a concussion and I can't tell if zhere are any inner wounds. Some of zhe ingredients Scout brought could have been made into a cooling paste against the fever but zhere is way too less of it. Verdammt, what is a doctor good for when he can't heal anymore? Heavy ... I can't ... ich kann einfach nicht mehr."

Heavy wrapped an arm around his shoulder and pulled him closer.

"You are great doctor", he silently said, "and you are doing best. Maybe more than anyone else could do in such situation with so little tools. It is not medigun that makes a good doctor, it is your knowledge."

A little smile flickered over Medic's face. How long was it ago since he had smiled for the last time? Those muscles felt as if they hadn't moved anymore for weeks.

"Danke, Heavy", he silently said.

In the darkness Soldier silently sat on Demo's bed which was made out of car seats. He spent nearly all his time on this place, or at least as long until Medic lost his patience again and threw him out. Feeling helpless, guilty, not knowing what to do - he hated it. But at least he wanted to be there for Demo now. Maybe he could feel that he wasn't alone. And he also had done something before. Demo's blood type was quite common and a lot of people could have been donators - Medic himself, Heavy, Engineer - but Soldier had insisted to take his blood.

And now there was nothing more for him to do than to sit and wait in silence.


	4. 04 Hope

**Fortress of Death**

_Chapter 04 - Hope_

Songs from the original challenge for this chapter: "Here's hope" by Owl City (maybe a bit too much of a happy song but the text fits to some scenes) and "Deadman's gun" from the Red Dead Redemption soundtrack.

And an honourable mention for "Save me" by Globus which inspired me to some scenes that happen in the town. However, I took that song out of the random songfic challenge because it was the one I clicked on so my media player would start playing and thus it wasn't one of the randoms anymore.

Pyro dragged a corpse out of the river. He let a bit more water flow by before he refilled the bottles. A noise in the far distance made him look up. He couldn't make out anything in the dark cloudy sky but he was sure it had been the sound of a helicopter. So they were still searching for survivors once in a while - good news for the camp. If only they could start moving east again, closer to where he presumed the sound to stem from.

On his way back he let his eyes wander over the grass. Medic had described certain medicinal herbs to them which they should look out for whenever they left the camp. The best option was still another pharmacy with already prepared medications since the herbs were rare in this area and they even would barely find any if they went with a lawn mower all over it but those few were better than nothing. At least no one's fever had been rising anymore, might it have been because the wounded had started recovering on their own or because of the cooling paste Medic had mixed or actually because of those little yellow flowers the mercs had found sometimes and which Pyro now was carrying home as well.

"The last drugstore is presumed to be here", Soldier said and tapped at their ten year old map as if he was pointing out enemy camps. "But remember, boys, don't go looking for it for too long since we can never be sure if it is still there. Just swarm out, enter whatever building you can get in, grab whatever you can and be back at the van within half an hour. Or earlier whenever you had to retreat from the zombies. I can't and won't give us more time in this godforsaken town."

The addressed boys were actually only one boy, namely Scout. Pyro who should have been in the team as well was still somewhere out and Spy who had appeared at the meeting because he was bored out of his mind was supposed to stay back at the camp.

Scout just silently nodded. He knew what expected him and while the thought to go back there made him sick he wanted to be with the team - to make up for his stupid mistakes which even brought Sniper into this situation.

"Our flower girl is back", Spy commented and nodded at the window.

"Good, I'll tell him that we will meet at the van in fifteen minutes", Soldier said. "Everyone can prepare by gathering a bit of the remaining ammo."

They had already needed to start using the munition of the 'cursed backpacks' as Soldier called them but that could only be used for the smaller weapons and also not all of them. Special fabrications like the Ambassador had to stay empty.

Silently Scout closed the door to the small room behind him. Currently the man inside was asleep but according to the Medic he had awoken a few times the previous night. Just like Demo's bed Sniper's was made of everything soft that could have been found in the cars. Since there was no other place Scout knelt down on the floor to his friend's right side. Sniper's hat and sunglasses had been placed next to him.

Probably it was because of the wounds and his fever - or was it actually the lack of those two trademark accessories that made him look so vulnerable. Since Scout knew him he always had been so cool, so ... aloof. In the past few weeks they had been closer together than ever before and even then the boy had felt a certain distance between them. Or wasn't that distance coming from Sniper but rather from Scout himself?

Slowly he leaned forward until his forehead rested on the mattress and his head lightly touched Sniper's side. No, this time he wouldn't cry, not in front of Sniper at least. One second later he wasn't even sure if he still felt like crying - or how he felt in general. Mainly depressed, empty but deep inside there was a mix of so much more which he couldn't quite figure out. Actually he had wanted to bury his face in Sniper's chest -_ why?_ - but then he had been too afraid - _what of? _- and rather settled for this position.

Something suddenly hit his head. When he looked up Sniper's hand glided off it and landed on Scout's shoulder where he probably had wanted to hover it before he had weakly dropped it. His half opened eyes were glazed from fever but he already showed a very light smile on his face.

"Hey, Boston Bunny... Smile, you won't get rid of me yet. Besides, it was giving me hope."

The corners of Scout's mouth twitched up ever so lightly – to more happiness he didn't feel able at the moment. There was way too much at stake in the nearest future - both wounded falling back into their feverish coma, their looting mission ending in a disaster, the camp being attacked while half of those who still could fight were away - and he didn't even want to think of the further future.

"I ... I'm sorry, I have to go. Our preparation time is over and the others might already be waiting for me", he mumbled. Suddenly he didn't want to go anymore - not because he was afraid of his own fate but because he didn't want to leave Sniper behind in a half protected camp.

For a moment Sniper just silently looked at him but then he said, "Well, good luck then. Guess you'll need it in that bloody town." His fingers lightly brushed against Scout's cheek before his hand slid off his shoulder again.

'No they did not, they just slipped by really close but you aren't sure of they actually touched, are you?' Scout's mind said. 'Stop reading things into something that never happened.'

But why would he even read anything into anything? Quickly he stood up but then he tried to leave the room not too hastily. He didn't want to make it look as if he was running away from Sniper. Or from something else.

Soldier was already waiting in front of the van and talked with Engineer.

"Make sure Pyro doesn't use his flamethrower more often than absolutely necessary", Scout heard the Texan say. "Fire is one of our most important things right now, not just as an attack. We can't always use the van's gas tank to refill his weapon."

"I'll try but I can't promise." He turned his head when he heard the steps. "Ah, the boys have arrived."

Soldier was driving and Scout had taken the passenger seat so actually Pyro could have stayed in the back of the van but he rather preferred to stand right behind them.

A few zombies were crossing their path from time to time but Soldier never avoided them and just mowed them out of the way.

"I hope you just do that because they are zombies and did not drive like a fool before", a well-known voice with a French accent suddenly said behind them.

The two passengers in the back were nearly catapulted forward when Soldier suddenly slammed the breaks. He didn't completely stop the van though but let it continue rolling slowly.

"What are you doing here?" he exclaimed. "You should have stayed back in the camp?"

"And to do what? Frighten the zombies to death when I suddenly appear behind them? They can't be stabbed and my pistol is as empty as our stomachs. In that case it doesn't really matter if there is one man less in the camp or not when he isn't of much help when it comes to defending it."

"Well, fine, I don't want to turn around again anyways and I also can't let you walk back."

"At least you would have cleared the obstacles out of my way."

"But I'm expecting this mission to be even more successful. If we are just easier noticed because there are running way too many humans around in this town now then it will be your rations that will be kept short."

"Good, at least I will get short rations instead of nothing at all for the fifth day in a row. I'm forgotten so often, it's like I'm invisible."

"Hud huh!" Pyro suddenly shouted and it sounded somewhat like 'Shut up!'

For a few seconds the others stared at him then Soldier and Spy decided it was better to delay their discussion.

When they left the van the town looked as calm as at the beginning of Scout's and Sniper's first visit. Three of the mercs swarmed out as planned - Scout to the east, Soldier to the west, Pyro followed Scout for a bit but then took a street leading north - Spy just disappeared.

The automatic doors of the store were jammed permanently open. Zombies were feeding on the remains of the poor unfortunate soul who had been lured into that death trap by the hope to find leftover food not long ago only to end up in a zombie nest and become _their _food. One of the creatures further inside the shop lifted up its head when it sensed some other living being nearby but when it couldn't make out anything it continued rooting the shelves as if it expected another human in there. One of the things was suddenly ripped out of its hand, floated in the air for maybe a second before it disappeared.

"Parfait, exactly what I needed. Merci, mon ami", the air said.

The zombie furiously lunged forward but Spy quickly evaded it and continued his stroll down the shelves.

'Now I only need to push a shopping cart and this théatre grotesque would be perfect', he thought. He knew he was moving on very thin ice where every wrong step was deadly but the thrill was a welcome change after sitting at the camp for days doing nothing. Why didn't more zombies stare in his direction yet because they could hear him? His steps were silent as ever and he also could control his breath but his heart was booming so loud he presumed the kids of the next town had already started a rave party.

'Crema liquore', Spy read from the small bottle he had just grabbed and made a step to the side so a zombie wouldn't walk into him. Well, not exactly what they needed but some people would surely make good use of it.

Somewhere outside a shot rang out and suddenly every creature inside the shop that wasn't busy with the carcass started moving. They didn't care anymore what they rammed so Spy could quickly continue his shopping tour even though that meant he had to deal with being crowded by zombies and pushed around by them sometimes. Was there even the need to stay invisible all the time? By now he must have looked and smelled like one of them. He did it nevertheless to be on the save side.

A shiver of disgust went through his body as soon as the worst was over and he could move freely again but instead of staying in the nearly empty store he followed the crowd. A shot could mean another unknown survivor or - what was rather possible - one of his team mates and since Scout only had taken his bat and a flamethrower normally didn't make such noise it wasn't hard to figure out who would soon be in more trouble than he had shot himself out of.

From the look of it Scout was in a residential district. Nearly every window and door he had come past was boarded up but aside of that unfriendly look nothing else strange was seen on the street. Since he would probably only run out of time if he continued following the street he picked one of the houses and pulled at one of the boards until it became loose. The window behind it could be smashed. For a few seconds he stopped to listen if he had drawn the attention of any zombies. There were silent noises but still further away. Another board came loose then the gap was already large enough for his scrawny body to fit through. The stale air inside made it nearly impossible to breathe for the first few seconds but then his lungs got used to it and could filter out the oxygen again. Or maybe it was because of the fresh air flowing inside.

A faint rotten smell coming from upstairs told him something or someone probably had died up there but since he didn't hear anything it was either locked away tightly or dead for good. Scout's guess was on the second, that the owners of the house knew they were dying and wanted to make sure they didn't turn - by committing suicide with a headshot for example. If he had been in such a situation with no way out would he have been able to pull the trigger and set an end to it? Probably not but he couldn't be sure since he never had been there. There had always been a way out and even when the feeling of numbing emptiness had taken over again there always was something - or someone - left to live for.

He decided not to go up there unless he really had to.

Scout started searching the kitchen for something edible but of course he only found trash. A bitter laugh suddenly escaped his throat. He never had been one of the rich kids but at least he never had to search the trash cans for food like a hobo - a quite common practice in the district he had grown up in - and now he was doing exactly that. If only his mother or brothers could see him right now. At least they were living far north and still in safety.

The next room was a bathroom - with a mirror cabinet that still held a few medications. Most of them were expired since the former owner probably didn't need them often and didn't care to restock in time but they possibly could still be used. Aspirin, painkillers, different tubes with creams - everything was stuffed into the backpack. They might not be able to cure an infection with it but at least it could help against fever or other things that came with it.

A sudden noise made him spin around and the same second he cursed himself for not making sure if there was another exit. Also zombies were thin enough to fit through the gap at the window and the first one had just dropped on the floor. He could still smash that one's head in but others were already waiting outside and pushing through the hole.

Scout rushed through the rooms. Of course all of the other windows and the backdoor were boarded down. There was no time to push them off, not with zombies following him so there was only one way left. He raced upstairs and ran against a few locked doors until he finally found one that budged. Ignoring the dead body with the bullet hole in his temple lying in the middle of the room he ran towards the non-boarded window, only stopped for a second to pick up the gun on the ground - not of much help in this case since it probably only had very few shots left. Looking down from the window he only hesitated for a moment until he heard the first few creatures entering the room then he climbed onto the windowsill and jumped. The grass in the backyard was soft but nevertheless his landing was a painful reminder he wasn't in the safety of the gravel pit anymore where anything could just be healed anytime. His limbs were hurting but he couldn't stop yet. With a high jump he reached the edge of the fence, pulled himself up and dropped on the other side - to find himself on a street together with a good dozen zombies which were all staring at first but then coming in his direction. Scout could have screamed. He had escaped so narrowly only to jump right into some others arms. But instead with a grim look on his face he lifted up his bat. If he already was supposed to die he wouldn't do it like a child on his knees - he would take a few of them with him.

Suddenly a blast of fire hit and burned down the closest zombies. Pyro stuck to the order. He didn't use his flamethrower - he breathed fire. Whatever he blew at the torch made out of trash he was holding in front of his mask, it was just sending another fireball against the living dead.

"Aw geez, man", Scout said and let out his breath in a sigh of relief after the last one on the street was down and he had made sure none of those from the house followed them. "I have never been so happy to see you."

Pyro just shortly nodded to show he appreciated the thanks.

Soldier wandered through a rather deserted looking area of the town - deserted regarding the amount of buildings, not the zombies. A few houses, gas stations, a construction site, a highway bridge leading over the area. The only store he had come by a while ago he had ignored - too many of these creatures inside. But at least they all stayed in their nest and kept the streets clean of their presence. A scratching sound was heard once in a while as if a body was dragged along the street but this probably only was one of the crawlers - the kind of zombie that couldn't walk anymore and either crawled or dragged themselves over the ground. Not really a thread since they were slow and their heads could be bashed in easily.

Soldier neared one of the stations, tried out the fuel pumps. Nothing worked, of course not without electricity. He tried to remember how Engineer had gotten gas out of them anyways but he had never watched him close enough while he did so.

The scratching noises became a bit louder. That thing had to be just somewhere around the corner. Probably it was better to just ignore it and move on - or he should get rid of it after all before it could get an annoying problem that always tried to follow him and drew unwanted attention.

Soldier silently walked to the building and leaned against the wall, gun in shooting position, before peeking around the corner carefully. His guts suddenly felt as if someone had poured icy water into them. Yes, he had known that some of the REDs had turned - Scout had told him - but Soldier never had thought that _he_ could have been among them. Indecisively he made a step forward and out of his cover. RED Demoman hissed and stretched out and arm when he saw the living being in front of him but since they were still good two metres away from each other he only grasped the empty air. Soldier just stared down on him. Somehow he had known that his former best friend was dead but this wasn't how it should have ended. Lying dead somewhere in a gutter also wasn't a glorious death but it was better than ... this. He couldn't kill his friend, just didn't want to - but actually it was for the best, better than letting him crawl around as a mangled creature for all eternity. Soldier pointed his gun at him, closed his eyes then pulled the trigger.

For a few seconds he remained standing still, gun lowered again, his eyes on the limb body.

'There you have it, you old witch', he grimly thought when he remembered things of days gone by. 'I killed him with my own hands. You happy now?' Actually he had expected to be struck by grief but now after it was over he only felt peace. A strange, empty kind of peace but nevertheless, it was peace. He took off his helmet, pressed it against his chest and knelt down beside his friend to pay his last respect to him. Rasping sounds were heard and steps quickly came closer but actually he didn't care. At this moment nothing mattered anymore. If they killed him he at least would die side by side with a friend.

"Get back to your feet and move your ass, private! This is an order!" a voice suddenly shouted.

Maybe the man had given up but the army man was drilled to keep going beyond his limits whenever he was ordered to. Slowly he forced himself up, raised his gun and fired at the incoming enemies.

With a flicker Spy became visible, grabbed a zombie's head, dragged it back and sliced its throat open before dropping it like a hot coal. He turned invisible again but a permanent flicker often gave away his position even when he didn't decapitate someone. Since he had to move permanently and fast his cloak barely had the time to recharge.

"Get outta here as long as you still can", Soldier shouted over the heads. He knew that alone, encircled by opponents and with only a few more rounds left he never stood a chance but he surely didn't want to risk the life of team members when they still had the chance to escape.

"The hell I will do! Oh zut alors..." The cloak failed completely and soon Spy found himself surrounded by zombies as well.

"Here, catch!"

He could just reach out a hand and grab the gun flying towards him in time and fired at the closest enemies.

Scout tried to get closer to Soldier by jumping from head to head. One of the zombies broke down way too early but a double jump prevented him from drowning in the sea of walkers. He landed in the middle of the small ring of free space which Soldier had created around himself, smashed in the heads of those which just were about to enter it and which Soldier couldn't fend off anymore in time.

"Pyro will soon be here", he called out. "Ya know, he's not much of a sprinter."

Not even a minute later a fire blast drove through the crowd.

With the teamwork of the four mercs the zombies were defeated within minutes.

"Are you ... feeling alright?" Spy asked.

Soldier knew he had seen him kneeling next to the RED Demoman but probably Spy just asked because he thought Soldier had had his breakdown thanks to the similar look to someone he was worried for and not because he somehow figured out this RED once had been someone Soldier had cared about. No one had ever found out and he also didn't want to rub it into their faces now.

"Yeah ... I guess so", he just answered before continuing with something else. "Without Pyro's and Scout's help we might have never made it out alive. How did you guys even know we needed reinforcements?"

"We were already back at the van waiting for you", Scout explained. "Then we heard shots in the neighbourhood and guessed you could be in some kind of trouble. Geez, I hope we can leave this town for good now and never return to it anymore. Did we all at least find something useful? I got some drugs the doc could need and Pyro got a bit of food - already roasted."

"I was on a shopping trip in the food store but I think they should restock more often. Their shelves looked nearly empty if you don't count the zombies that were sitting on them", Spy said dryly. "I got a full bag after all but this definitely won't fill the stomachs of nine people, especially not when our rations should last for longer than a few days.

Soldier sighed. "The first thing I tried to get was fuel but I didn't know how to get it out and then the zombies were already there."

Something knocked against his back and when he turned around Pyro shoved a full jerrycan into his arms. The fuel pack for his flamethrower was likely also refilled.

"Uhm ... thanks", Soldier said and blinked at Pyro in mild confusion. But then again their fiery friend spent loads of time with Engineer and presumably had also learned a thing or two from him.

When the van rolled into the camp area Engineer and Heavy were about to repair parts of the fence.

"Some of the runners broke it down and made it inside", Engineer explained to the four returning. "We could fend them off without problems and also the damages can be repaired for now but when there will be more attacks our stockade might not last for too long anymore. As much as I hate to say that but we probably have to get moving again."

Pyro mumbled something and the Texan translated for him.

"Pyro says he heard helicopters somewhere in the east. When the rescuing teams are still circling over those lands once in a while we have to find them."

Most of the team might have been in favour to move immediately so they could get even further away from that bloody town but they couldn't transport the wounded and sick in that van unless they were lying on the floor and everyone else except for the driver and a co-driver stayed outside and followed on foot.

"As soon as our sick have recovered", Soldier agreed.


	5. 05 Lost without you

**Fortress of Death**

_Chapter 05 - Lost without you_

Comment: Bros, couples, a calm and sweet chapter. I wanted to have everyone in it, even if it's just a short scene, but then mainly focus on Scout and Sniper. I actually had that scene between the two in my mind for a lot longer than this whole story and never would have thought it would end up in the middle of a zombie crossover one day. But then I heard the song and not only did the scene fit well for it but I also got the idea it would quite perfectly combine with the rest of the story.

Song from the original challenge for this chapter: "Lost without you" by Beverly Craven

And also the music played at McDonalds can be quite inspirational. Have been sitting in one of the restaurants for hours sometimes while writing this.

Sniper stretched his limbs and walked a few rounds through the small room. His side stung a little when he made the wrong movements and the skin where once the wound had been felt tense but he was sure when he kept moving it would go away or he at least would get used to it. Medic hadn't come to check on him for hours so he hadn't been able to ask him yet if he already was allowed to leave the hospital but Sniper probably wouldn't have stayed anyways, no matter the answer. His fever was gone, the wound completely healed, he didn't get sick from the slightest head movement anymore and he was tired of staying in bed staring at the ceiling for hours.

The only other merc he met on his way out of the building was Heavy - probably as usual on the way to help the doctor out with something, or just to talk with him.

"Hey, how's our other patient going?" Sniper asked.

"On two legs", the Russian answered.

Sniper wasn't sure if that was meant to be ironically or if he had taken the question literally but then Heavy showed a grin on his face.

"Demoman is feeling better too. Medic is doing exercises with him so he can put weight on his leg for longer. I think you heard news that we might continue travel tomorrow?"

"Scout told me - yesterday. By the way, have you seen him? I haven't in a day. Kinda miss our spastic bunny."

"Njet, at least not since afternoon. He went with Soldier to the river. They should be back before it gets dark."

"Good, I'm out trying to be a bit useful or whatever else."

"That took you quite a long time, boys. You almost got us worried", Engineer said when he opened the gate. It was already pretty dark and the two figures outside were hard to make out but he was sure they were his returning friends. Who else but Scout would jokingly say he needed a dispenser here when Engineer asked who was there?

"Sorry for the delay, pal. We were stopped by the highway patrol", Scout said.

"That is not a joke", Soldier explained. "These walkers were wearing the uniforms of cops. But at least they were already half damaged before we gave them the rest."

"And there are good news from the camp", Engineer announced. "Demo and Sniper are up and according to Medic we can move as soon as we are ready."

"Gee, that's great for sure", Scout said a wide smile on his face. "C'mon, let's get that water to the storage and then we have to pay someone a visit."

Demoman stood on the roof of the office building and let his gaze wander over the area. Here and there torches lit up the place but else it was dark.

"First day up and already on guard duty? My respect for such praiseworthy conduct", Soldier said with a grin and stepped beside him.

"Hey, good to see ya, lad. Must have been an eternity ago since we last met each other. At least ... five hours. That was when the doctor kicked you out and sent you to do something useful instead of always standing in our way", Demo said and returned the grin. "Actually I was just looking at our place a bit. Spy is on guard duty but so far I haven't seen him anywhere. For all I know that sneaky bastard could have been standing silently right beside me for an hour. We do have quite a great place here. Too bad we have to give it up so soon."

"Yeah, it was a good place but unfortunately it had nearly no shopping possibilities and rude neighbours. We even had to shoot a few of them. This world is so fucked up..." His smile had slowly faded by now. He let out a sigh and slowly shook his head before he continued, "Do you remember what that woman from the survivor group we once fought said? She asked us if we ever had to shoot a turned friend. I had to think of it when I did exactly that a few days ago in the town. I have already told you that I had to shoot a RED. That was him. I had to shoot at someone who once was my best friend."

Demo looked at him in surprise but didn't say anything and waited if Soldier continued on his own which he also did.

"Back in the old days I got the order to kill him or be killed. Wherever the Administrator is, I hope she is happy now. It is strange though. I'm kinda sad but not as much as I should have been after the death of a friend. It's like it already happened months ago, not only a few days. Probably because I was prepared to find out about his death since it all started. Probably because it wasn't me who killed him after all. I just shot a dead body and made sure he wouldn't roam around as a zombie." He vigorously shook his head. "But I don't want to drag myself down now with those old memories. I rather want to be glad that you have made it, that we all are still alive."

He took off the backpack he was still carrying and started digging in it.

"Hope you don't need to take any medications anymore because you know I promised we will celebrate as soon as you are up again. It's just liquor but who cares?"

Demo chuckled. "And the doctor thought I would finally be able to stay away from that crap for good. Well, too bad I wasn't an alcoholic because I was addicted or wanted to drown anything in it. I was alcoholic because I loved to be one. Shall we share something with the others as well?"

"Only when they are fast enough."

"And looks like our fastest is already here to have his part."

Scout had entered the roof as well. He was still wearing his smile but something seemed to bother him.

"Oh ... uh ... hi. I hope I don't disturb anyone. If I do ... well, sorry, but deal with it. I wanted to pay Demo a visit for a change and see how he is."

"I thought you already were with Sniper", Soldier asked. "Everything alright? You look somewhat nervous."

"Haven't found Snipes yet. The doc said he's somewhere out but, hey, that area is huge and I haven't been everywhere yet. And yeah, I'm alright. Probably just the nerves. As soon as someone is gone without a trace for just a few seconds I'm already thinking of a disaster."

"Want some liquor?" Demo asked and held up the bottle. "To celebrate with us or just to calm down your nerves?"

At first Scout hesitated but then he took it and had a sip. The alcohol burned in his nearly empty stomach and even though he had drunken just a little bit he could already feel its effect.

"Thanks, pal, and I'm glad to see that you are better again but sorry, I now have to get going again." With that he turned around again and nearly crashed against the door leading to the staircase.

"I can't help but something seemed to bother him", Soldier sighed.

"Ach, to me he seemed quite normal. Maybe even more hectic and also quite nervous but I guess I would be too if I couldn't find you on the whole place."

"Or maybe he is crossed in love, who knows", Spy said and appeared at Demo's side.

"See? I told ya", Demo said.

"In love with whom?" Soldier asked.

Spy shrugged. "How should I know? A zombie maybe?"

Demo snorted with laughter. "Oh crap, I can't get that picture out of my head anymore. Can we finally start with the drinking part? Maybe it helps me to forget that."

"Of course." Soldier lifted up the bottle. "May all your children be born with four eyes, you Scottish cyclops." He took a gulp and reached the bottle over to Demo.

"Yeah, cheers to you too you bloody monster eagle."

The liquor wandered over to Spy.

"Santé, salauds. Do we want to drink or throw profanities at each other's heads?"

"Who knows, it at least gets funnier that way, French toast."

"Oh please, we don't even have a Pyro up here."

The only Pyro of the camp sat in front of the fire place and like mesmerized listened to Engineer's guitar play.

"It's good to get outta here again", the Texan silently said. "We're already running low on supplies." He shortly interrupted his play when his stomach started grumbling but only for a second then he continued and with a chuckle he added, "And my insides share that opinion. Darn, I had my ration today but still I'm hungry enough to eat zombies. Let me loose on that town and they soon wouldn't have any problems with them anymore."

Pyro searched his pockets and dragged out something that looked like a roasted peach.

"That is part of your ration, ain't it?"

Pyro mumbled something that sounded to him like, "I want to share it with you."

Engineer gave him a surprised look but then a warm smile wandered over his face. "I can't express enough how much I appreciate that, buddy."

Medic stood in front of the window and watched the flickering torches outside. His patients were out, most of his supplies were already in the van for their departure tomorrow. Maybe someone still needed his help later that night - probably those three drunks up at the roof whom he could hear all the way down after they realized alcohol and a nearly empty stomach didn't fit together too well - but else it was a free night. He smiled lightly when he heard steps behind him - he knew he would come, he always did.

"You still here, doctor?" Heavy asked. "Others are celebrating or spending time with each other or ... running around like headless chicken and searching others. Well, at least they are all outside today."

Medic shook his head. "I still had a bit of packing up to do and also decided to spend my spare time in here. It might not be warmer zhan outside but else I have everyzhing I need. Calm around me, zhe sounds of celebration above me, campfires I can watch." He leaned back a little until the back of his head touched Heavy's shoulder and he could look at his face. "And someone's company I can enjoy."

"The problem with feeling cold can be easily solved", Heavy said and gently wrapped his arms around Medic's body.

The reason for Scout's nervousness was in fact Sniper. But not because he was actually worried about his disappearance - Scout was sure he was still somewhere in the safety of the camp. The problem was rather the lack of courage to admit his own feelings. For days he had wanted to talk to Sniper about it, even though he had no idea how to tell him but then he always had gotten cold feet, talked about something else and kept his distance. The same bloody distance that already separated them for such a long time. He didn't even know what he was actually afraid of. Out in the middle of nowhere and moreover in a zombie infested area - what society was left that could still punish or shun him for his actions? There hadn't even been much of it back in the gravel pit - just a bunch of other mercs and he had never given a crap on what they actually thought about his behaviour. And still...

But now the alcohol in his blood gave him courage.

The roof of the garage he found Sniper standing on was protected from wind a little bit by the walls of the higher building right next to it, but actually wind didn't matter since it wasn't blowing strong. What rather mattered to Scout was that he had chosen a place that was also a bit protected from sight.

"If you are on the lookout you haven't chosen the best place, pal", Scout said when he climbed up the ladder in the back and walked over to him. "You can only see the backyard from here."

"Oh no, not you again. Don't ya have somethin' better to do?" Sniper said. His back was still turned towards Scout but from the sound of his voice it was clear that he just wanted to tease.

"I can go away again if you want me to."

Now Sniper finally turned around, a little smile showed on his face. "Nah, actually I missed ya."

"I know, right? I'm like a drug. No one can stay away from me."

"Hope you didn't search for me just to brag about that."

"No, I wanted ... Uhm ... I ... Hey, when I was out with Soldier I didn't just hear the chopper, I also saw it on the horizon. The van could reach the landing place within not even a day in case it keeps landing on that same place."

Well, here we go again.

Sniper said nothing and waited patiently as if he knew there was more Scout wanted to say.

"I ... Uh ... Oh screw talking."

He suddenly grabbed the older man's shoulders, stood on his toes a bit so their faces were at an even level and pressed his lips on Sniper's. It happened so fast and without a warning sign he wouldn't have been able to avoid it and now Sniper also didn't do anything to get away from it. In fact he did nothing at all, his hands remained resting on his hips where they previously had been, his eyes were on Scout. After just a few seconds the boy withdrew, leaned back and crossed his arms in front of his chest, a defiant look on his face.

"Alright, I did it and I am perfectly aware of what I did. So sue me."

Sniper let out his breath with a deep sigh.

"Boston Bunny ... You are drunk. I could taste liquor. Hell I can also still smell it."

"I'm not! Those were only one or two sips. But more you don't have to say about it?"

"Only that I don't want to be a desperation fuck. Have you thoroughly thought about it? I know, we are far away from everything. Maybe it is desperation that draws us together closer than we should be. Maybe we confuse our feelings for ... something deeper than they actually are."

"Have I thought about this? Man, I have thought about it for weeks, whenever I wasn't distracted by some other crap. When you were lying there with your wounds and fever and it was unsure if you would still live to see the any other day... I-I regretted everything so much. That I never said a word, that I just continued running away from everything I felt, that it were actually my childish actions that caused you to be in this situation. I would have gone through hell to get you back - maybe I also did. How much shall I still think about it?"

He stopped and averted his gaze when he noticed how loud he had become. Shouting at Sniper was the least he had wanted - and letting the others know what he was talking about.

A hand was placed under his chin and he was gently forced to look back at Sniper. He showed that soft smile again.

"A simple yes or no would also have been enough", he said before he pulled him closer and kissed him.

When the first rays of sun showed at the horizon Sniper was already up, sitting at the sleeping Scout's side, watching the last remaining burning torches, the landscape but most of all Scout.

So many years he spent alone, found his haven in isolation. It had an advantage - there were hardly any people he could put in the danger a job like this normally came with. No loved one someone could kidnap, or torture, or kill in revenge.

But Scout could take care of himself, he didn't need protection. If anything then it had been the other way round for many weeks. The boy might have been down too at times but he hardly ever showed it to him and his positive nature kept Sniper from losing hope completely. If it hadn't been for Scout - would he even have fought to stay alive?

Scout let out a groan, followed by a silent curse.

"How do you feel?"

"Tell the sun to go away and not come back until I had more sleep. But aside of that I feel great."

"Still no second thoughts now that we can talk without the help of alcohol?"

"Hell no."

"Good." Sniper stretched and sighed. "Another one of these mornings without coffee and a durry. That's the reason to hate these bloody zombies most."

Scout chuckled. "Well, a good way to stop smoking and lay off the caffeine." He now sat up too. "Gee, since I won't be able to get more sleep anyways we could as well look for the others."

It was odd to sit in the back of his own van between the other mercs but Medic had wanted to have an eye on him and Demo - just in case. To his left Scout was sitting, head leaned back and fast asleep. Somehow Sniper felt like putting an arm around Scout's shoulders and pulling him even closer so his head would rest on his shoulder but he didn't know if Scout would already have wanted to let the others see how much they cared for each other. As if the other mercs would give a crap; they also never said anything when Medic decided to lean against Heavy - but on the other hand that could be because Medic always has been known to be odd at times, or because no one wanted to start a fight with Heavy. Anyways, for the moment he had to be content with just sitting so close to Scout.

To his right side Spy snored loudly but no one could tell if he was actually sleeping or just pretending very well. Soldier and Demo hadn't even tried to sit somewhere and lay stretched out on the floor. Those two would remain all knocked out for at least the next few hours.

Engineer and Pyro were in the front and Sniper hoped to whatever god available that it was still Engineer who was driving and they hadn't switched places during one of the breaks.

They must have been on the road for several hours by now when Engineer made another stop.

"A break again?" Medic asked. "Zhe last one hasn't even been half an hour ago."

The door to the front opened.

"Guys, look at that", Engineer said. "Looks like we got some massive problem."


	6. 06 Free

**Fortress of Death**

_Chapter 06 - Free_

Song from the original challenge for this chapter: "Now we are free" by Lisa Gerrard

The bridge leading over the Hale River was completely jammed. A bus had had an accident close to the middle, empty cars were randomly standing around, clogging the street.

They still could have turned around to find another way but according to the map they would have needed to accept a journey of miles through complete no-man's-land. A journey that would have ended after a few more hours due to the lack of fuel. Another time they had been so close to their destination only to see it recede into the distance.

"Well, looks like in the end all my work was good for nothing after all", Engineer said and gave the van a pat. "Would even be hard to manoeuvre a bike through that."

It was stupid to feel sad about it, Sniper exactly knew it. This was just an old car and at the beginning of the gravel pit wars he had even thought to get rid of it and buy a new one. But for so many weeks it had been such a loyal companion, crawling through the whole country with a cracked axle, giving them protection from attacks on the open road, serving as a lookout post, a carriage and storage for everything they needed. Also the blood he had dripped on the co-driver's seat when they narrowly escaped the town was a still clearly visible reminder of what they had been through with it.

"Don't be sad - should this crap ever be over you can go back here and will still find it on the same position. Who would want to steal an old van that smells like an unaired gym locker room and is full of blood stains?" Scout tried to cheer him up.

Yeah, who? They would probably only empty the fuel tank. With a last pat Sniper said goodbye to his old companion and followed the other mercs into the labyrinth of cars.

"Dell, you had the maps, can you take the lead?" Soldier asked. He was still slightly drowsy but else sounded as if his head was clear again.

Engineer only shrugged helplessly.

"They showed New Mexico and a bit of what was lying behind the borders. I know if we left the highway and crossed the forest along the river there would be another smaller street and some kind of settlement about twenty miles away but then..."

The roaring sound of a helicopter rising in the distance behind the forest drowned the end of the sentence and the silent curse that followed when he spun around. While the others stood like frozen in shock Scout ran towards it but the chopper continued its way up, rear end facing them, and it was unclear if the pilot had even noticed them. A few more steps then Scout broke down on his knees.

"No ... Fuck!" He slammed his fist against the ground.

Sniper had followed him, now sat down beside him.

"Bloody hell. We're buggered ... again."

"Well ... way to crush someone's hopes", Engineer silently said.

"No, we won't give up yet, boys", Soldier firmly said. "We have come way too far for this crap. The helicopter will return to this area. It freaking has to. It just can't be that the pilot believes he has already picked up every survivor here."

"Zhis is a deserted area if you haven't noticed!" Medic exclaimed. "Zhe pilot could have picked up zhe whole population in just one flight. No one will ever come back because no one could guess or would even care if zhere were still people left! Why don't we just stay here and starve or get eaten?" He sank down to the ground, buried his face in his hands. "Just let us finally die in peace", he mumbled.

Heavy put his hands on the doctor's shoulders.

"No one will die, not today, not on any other day. Or at least not until we are old and grey and sitting in wheelchairs. And if necessary I will carry you until the end."

"Oh just leave me here behind", Medic muttered. He still allowed Heavy to pull him back to his feet but then unless gently pushed forward he remained standing, head lowered, eyes in a straight stare at the ground. In the end he just let it happen to be picked up, only closed his eyes and leaned his head against Heavy's chest.

"I have the awful feeling if this is going on for even just a few days longer we're gonna lose our doctor", Engineer silently said when they continued their march. "Somehow I'm glad we're out of ammo or else it might have happened a lot faster."

Being out in the middle of nowhere had the advantage that they barely met any zombies, still they took extra security measures when they rested for the night. Instead of just one campfire they drew a ring of fire around them.

Lying close next to him Sniper wrapped an arm around Scout's body, just wanted to feel his reassuring near. It was night, the others were already asleep so who would see them. And even if, why should they care? To his relief Scout didn't move away but placed his hand on Sniper's, gently squeezed it.

The shades of the trees barely protected them enough from the sun the next day, let alone the heat.

Medic still felt downcast but at least he was willing to continue the march together with the others again. The mercs had grouped around him like his personal life guards. It might not really have been necessary because they hadn't seen any zombies since yesterday but if anything they wanted to show him they wouldn't leave him down in the dumps.

"Maybe it's just me but I really don't like the smell of where we are heading to", Sniper commented after they had been walking for a good while.

"Probably just the river", Soldier said. "On some hot days it already developed some strange muddy and fishy smell."

"Nah, that's not a river even though it's partially coming from it. Smells more like blood to me. And something that is dead for at least a few days. But it's still very faint."

"Zombies out here in the wilderness?" Demo asked. "Could they be from that small settlement or...?" His eye suddenly widened in realization. "The bloody bus... There must have been casualties. What if the whole bus turned because the survivors couldn't get away in time anymore? What if some from the cars were attacked and killed as well because they wanted to help the people from the bus instead of running? They might have scattered since until now we only have met and killed very few but sooner or later the scent of fresh humans will lure them back."

"Uhm ... how many people would fit in a bus of that countryside kind?" Scout asked staring at the river.

"Nearly fifty, when they all want to have a seat. Way more if some are standing", Engineer replied.

"Well, then we will at least have gotten rid of a quarter of the sitting ones when we are finished with the first wave."

A good dozen of walkers crawled up the slope leading up from the river. But they weren't alone. Several more of them neared from the depths of the forest. The mercs slowly moved closer together. They knew that with their melee weapons alone they were screwed but still they wouldn't give up their lives without a fight.

"Burn down zhe wood."

The voice was so silent they at first weren't sure if it had actually been there or if it had only been their imagination.

"You heard right", Medic silently repeated. "Pyro, burn down zhe wood. If we already are supposed to die zhen at least let us take all of zhem with us."

"Medic ... this is brilliant!" Soldier exclaimed. "Boys, eight of us should be able to get past those twelve at the water. Just charge at them, take one forceful blow and no matter what has happened to the zombie, get in the river. Pyro, on my command you will burn down everything you can reach. All of you ready?"

Everyone nodded, even Medic.

"Then light 'em up!"

Eight of the mercs stormed forward. Behind them the flamethrower roared and the nearest trees were consumed by fire. Some of the creatures near the river went down; the others which couldn't follow the humans into the water turned their attention to the only living being remaining on the land only to be swallowed by the flames.

The water wasn't deep, barely reached the chest of the smallest merc but the river flowed fast and they had to fight to keep their balance and not get dragged away by the current. The blazing fire only a few steps away burned hot on their skins but it was impossible to keep more distance to the shore. Clinging on to each other or to whatever reachable bit of the shore they slowly made it forward, step by step, metre by metre. And then they had finally left the forest behind and Pyro kneeling at the edge of the river stretched out both arms to pull them out of the water. Completely exhausted they remained lying on the riverbank just trying to catch their breaths. Beside them the fire kept roaring, behind them the riptide so it needed a few seconds until they realized there was still another sound. A chopper hovered over the area - it looked as if it had been about to fly off towards the east but the pilot turned it in the air to see why a forest had suddenly burst into flames.

With the last of their strength they tried to force themselves up again. Scout was back on his feet fastest, stumbled forward a few steps then started running, waving his arms at the helicopter, desperately tried to make the pilot see they were living beings not a bunch of zombies or corpses lying scattered on the ground. He let out a loud laugh when he saw the chopper make a full turn and fly towards them then ran back to the other mercs.

Sniper had just been able to stand upright but was nearly tackled to the ground again when Scout leapt into his arms and pulled him into a stormily embrace. Same happened to Engineer when Pyro suddenly jumped at him, only that the Texan actually lost his balance.

"If I could I would dance now", Demo said with a grin.

"Should we ever get our weapons back - of course with fitting ammunition - we will do the rocket jump waltz all over the place", Soldier promised.

"Hallelujah, it's raining men", Spy dryly commented. "Just remind me not to appear at work on that day."

Medic stood and stared at the helicopter. He was trembling and tears were flowing down his face but the same time he was smiling.

"We have made it. We have really made it out of zhis", he silently said.

Heavy wrapped an arm around his shoulders. "Da, we finally are free."

(Comment: This is not the last chapter yet. Some kind of epilogue is still about to follow.)


	7. 07 We will watch over the ones who live

**Fortress of Death**

_Chapter 07 - Epilogue - We will watch over the ones who live_

Comment: No song from the original challenge for the last chapter. Actually this chapter hasn't even been planned. The story should have ended with the helicopter scene from the previous chapter but while writing that I started feeling like writing a few short scenes of the time when everything returned back to normal.

Btw, I mainly know 2Fort from SFM videos. In my own gameplay on that map I couldn't explore too much of it.

Many months later.

"Ten more minutes left on the mission", a bored female voice was heard in between explosions and death screams.

Everything in 2Fort looked as if nothing had ever happened all this time ago, as if the battles had never stopped. Survivors had returned to their old jobs, new mercs to form a second team had been hired. But not everyone did forget. To some the matches were just another war they had to survive.

Scout jumped over the hood of the van a certain someone had parked in the middle of the battlefield as if he wasn't giving a shit if this was allowed or not, dodged the incoming attack. A volley of bullets blasted over his head, hit the metal of the vehicle but without the chance of destroying it. A van on the battlefield became part of the movable scenery and scenery couldn't be damaged.

"Is leetle man afraid to die?" the ubercharged RED Heavy sneered.

Scout was heavily breathing, his heart raced. Yes, he was actually afraid of dying. He exactly knew the respawn worked perfectly as usual but still he hadn't died a single time since the battles started again. And now he was trapped behind the van, so low on health that just one more graze shot would have killed him.

Suddenly he was surrounded by something like a warming breeze, his wounds started healing rapidly.

"Oh gee ... Doc, you don't know how glad I am to see you!"

Medic had found cover behind part of the fence lining the bridge over the water area, his medigun pointed towards Scout.

"Heavy should be here any second", he called out.

That moment a loud shot rang out and the RED Medic whose ubercharge had just worn off fell, a hole between his eyes. Scout didn't know where Sniper had found his hiding place so with a thankful grin he gave a wave to the building in general. A second later the minigun blasts were answered by their side when the BLU Heavy arrived.

"You are late to zhe party", Medic teased. "What took you so long?"

"Had to help Demoman out of trouble", Heavy apologized. But now we are here to give you cover to get inside."

"Los! We only have eight more minutes."

Engineer guarded his sentry - on a balcony behind enemy lines. It was a frequent passing spot for members of both teams. Who cared about standing inside an intel room when he could actively support his team mates with covering fire?

"An Engi out here and all alone? You must be searching for trouble pal", a voice said.

The RED Scout was standing in the entrance to the yard surrounded by the balconies, just outside the sentry's reach.

"I'm never alone, boy. And you can be glad I only kill actual threats not someone who just came here for some mocking."

The Scout only chuckled. "Never alone? You mean the sentry gun? Yeah, I know I can't do much about that but there are a few others who might want their revenge 'cause you caught them off guard the first time. Hey, guys, easy target over here!"

He could barely finish the last sentence when the Demoman of his team already pushed him aside. Their freshly respawned Heavy followed right behind him. Also a RED Soldier ran through one of the doors on the upper floor, launched a rocket towards the sentry gun. But before the projectile could reach its destination it was reflected, hit the ground of the yard and the Soldier ran right into the fire of BLU Pyro who had stormed out of the door behind Engineer. Only a moment later bombs and rockets were flying off the roofs and hailed down on the enemies.

A little smile slipped on Engineer's face.

"I told ya, boy, I'm never alone."

Sniper watched the bridge from up above. Once in a while a RED shortly showed up but Sniper only shot when it would be a sure one-hit-kill or when one of his team mates was in danger. Even though he could fill up his ammo any time he never wasted a single bullet. Where the hell was Scout? He was inside for way too long already. And then he saw him storming out of the base, the briefcase on his back, a RED Pyro right on his heels. Sniper quickly raised the rifle to his shoulders and shot. He saw the Pyro fall and Scout jump into the water but couldn't continue his watch because he sensed something behind him. Quickly he spun around. The RED Spy broke down to the ground before him, revealing the BLU Spy who just backstabbed him.

"What an amateur", Spy said and casually lit another cigarette. "He didn't even notice me when I previously crossed his way up here - disguised as him."

"Thanks for covering my back, mate", Sniper said and turned his attention to the happenings down below again. Scout had already entered their base.

"Scoping on your little boy again?" Spy asked and leaned against the wall right next to Sniper. "Keep taking such good care on him", he silently added. "On the battlefield ... and anytime else."

What the heck? How did he know?

Sniper turned his head but Spy had already disappeared again.

"Victory", it sounded over the battlefield. A few shots were still heard once in a while but fire was seized immediately as soon as the REDs were on their side of the battlefield again. Soldier was just on his way back to the respawn room to regain health and stock up on ammo for the next round that would surely follow after a short break when he found the lonely remaining RED Scout in their base. Cowering in a corner the boy shortly scowled up at him but then averted his gaze again.

"Yeah, I know the drill of the humiliation round", he said. "Just ... just point your freaking gun at my head and shoot. So you can finally get your easy kill points and I don't have to kneel here before you like a helpless child any longer."

For a second Soldier looked down on his gun but then put it away.

"Go", he told the surprised Scout. "I won't shoot at someone who isn't even given the chance to defend himself. We will meet again on the battlefield. There I can have my kill - or you your revenge."

He looked after him when the boy ran off. Hopefully he would make it out alive and not run into someone who showed less mercy for stragglers in the wrong base.

When he entered the respawn room he walked into a little party. Those weren't unusual close to the end of the day when they had fought a couple of matches without a single death. The real party was still about to follow when the Administrator finally decided to call it a day. Smilingly Soldier shook his head.

'Professionals on the battlefield, boys behind the scenes', he thought and caught the bottle Demo tossed him.

The score tables told that they still held a record, not only at winning the most matches but also at the least deaths. This had not happened by chance. They didn't just fight on their own anymore to do their job and get through the day - the events of the past had bound them together, taught them to watch over each other, to fight as a team.


End file.
